Austin, Texas (CNN) Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, American Civil Liberties Union's to speak in Austin Texas in this year's SXSW (South by Southwest Interactive Festival) via skype teleconference in discussion about how the tech community must defend itself against mass surveillance. Audience members will be allowed to ask questions, and The Texas Tribune, intends to livestream the session. On Monday, March 10 at 11:00 am

The state’s highest court says “upskirting,” the practice of secretly photographing under a woman’s skirt, is not prohibited by state law.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said today that a state law intended to prohibit “Peeping Tom” voyeurism of completely or partially undressed people did not apply to people who take pictures of people who are fully clothed.

The ruling came in the case of a man who allegedly took photos under the dresses of women on Green Line trolleys.

The court focused on the language of the law, which prohibits secret photography of “a person … who is partially nude.”

“A female passenger on a MBTA trolley who is wearing a skirt, dress, or the like covering [private] parts of her body is not a person who is ‘partially nude,’ no matter what is or is not underneath the skirt by way of underwear or other clothing,” the court said in a unanimous ruling written by Justice Margot Botsford.

The court said Suffolk County prosecutors, who argued that the Peeping Tom law should apply, had a “flawed” interpretation of the law.

A Los Angeles Times reporter wanted to know the names of the officers who shot Long Beach man Douglas Zerby to death in 2010 for the deadly crime of holding a garden hose nozzle. Long Beach officials refused to tell him, nor provide the names of any Long Beach officers involved in shootings for the previous five years.....

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

“To me, that meme [above] is the message of classical liberalism and the philosophy of liberty"...

“People should be allowed to marry whoever they want, put what they want into their bodies as long as no one is hurt, and protect themselves and their property.”...

“I was initially skeptical that political action could make any positive change in the world, but I was convinced by a number of people that I would be best at spreading the message of liberty across the region and Canada.”...

“I do believe if property rights for people and especially First Nations were enforced, there would be a slower, more sustainable and responsible pace of development."...

“The only say I should have, as a government representative, is with helping resolve disputes.”...

“Gun control is not about protection, so much as it is about control. We’ve seen what happens in countries that allow these liberties to be eroded and it’s not pretty.”

A Russian official says potential sanctions by Washington against Moscow would lead to the “crash” of the US financial system and end its global financial domination.

Kremlin economic aide Sergei Glazyev said on Tuesday that Russia will reduce its economic dependency on the United States if Washington decides to impose sanctions against Moscow over the issue of Ukraine.

“We would find a way not just to reduce our dependency on the United States to zero but to emerge from those sanctions with great benefits for ourselves,” Glazyev said, adding that Russia could stop using dollars for international transactions.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

My sentiments, to be clear, are with the legitimate Ukrainian government, not with the neo-imperialist regime in Russia. But the United States, frankly, has limited standing to insist on absolute respect for the territorial integrity of sovereign states.

Before Iraq there was Afghanistan, there was the Persian Gulf War, there was Panama, there was Grenada. And even as we condemn Moscow for its outrageous aggression, we reserve the right to fire deadly missiles into Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and who knows where else.

This week, a term emerged that many bitcoiners won’t have heard before: transaction malleability. Mt Gox cited itas a key reason for suspending withdrawals, and it was also mentioned as the basis for an exploit used in amassive attack against the bitcoin network this week. So, what is it, how does it work, and should we be worried? Here’s what we know.

What is transaction malleability?

It’s an attack that lets someone change the unique ID of a bitcoin transaction before it is confirmed on the bitcoin network. The change makes it possible for someone to pretend that a transaction didn’t happen, if all the right conditions are in place.

Is it the same as double spending?

No. Double spending involves spending coins once, then creating a different transaction with those same coins before the first transaction is confirmed. The trick is then to get the fraudulent transaction confirmed on the bitcoin network first, so that the first transaction didn’t happen. That effectively means that you get to spend them twice.

In what I’d call a severe case of overreacting, Army veteran Tanya Mount was banned from her disabled daughter’s elementary school after she posted a photo of her concealed weapons permit online.The mother, who often volunteered at the school, said she was approached by a police officer near campus one day and warned that Principal Janina Dallas had filed a “no trespass order” against Mount.“He tells me that ‘We’re going to issue you a criminal trespass warning,’” she recalls the officer as saying. “‘The principal is scared of you and she doesn’t want you on the grounds.’ I ask for what? And he asks, ‘Were you in the Army?’ and I said, yes. He’s like, ‘Do you have a concealed weapons permit?’ I said, yes.”“I am a private person. However, after serving OUR country, it is my DUTY to make sure that our lives are not infringed upon. However, do it all within the confinements of the LAW, I am a law-abiding citizen,” Miss Mount posted on Facebook, Fox News reported.

Monday, March 3, 2014

A Colorado Springs mom is catching heat from social services for treating her son's cancer with cannabis instead of chemotherapy.

The thing is, she says, it seems to be working.

Sierra Riddle learned a year ago that her son Landon, 3, had an aggressive form of leukemia. Doctors in their hometown of Salt Lake City began the standard treatment of radiation and chemotherapy, which took a heavy toll on his little body.

Landon became violently ill, vomiting multiple times a day, and suffered nerve damage in his legs, Riddle told CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta in July. At one point, the boy went 25 days without eating.

"Around the clock, he's usually on liquid morphine, Ativan, Promethexane. And it just really didn't seem to be helping," Riddle said.

Though she didn't know much about medical marijuana, Riddle decided to try it because "we didn't have anything else to lose." She and Landon moved to Colorado, where medical marijuana is legal, in order to obtain the drug.

In January Landon began taking liquid forms of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol), two compounds found in cannabis. Miraculously, his cancer began to retreat.

"As soon as we started taking the oil, his platelets have been a regular healthy person's level and they can't understand why," Riddle told CNN.

In my opinion, government is at best, tolerated because there is no other recognizable option available at the time. At worst, it is an evil and tyrannical overlord of the individual, never ceasing in its desire for power, money, total control, brutality, war, and imperialism. This opinion obviously does not serve as a recommendation for any governing system, with the one exception of peaceful anarchy, or a society without the State.

Government is always an instrument of force, asgovernment has nothing, creates nothing, and produces nothing; it only steals from those who do. Therefore, politically based government should be avoided at all cost. Unfortunately, this has rarely happened in history.

Although government is controlling and brutal in its efforts to remain in power, it can only retain that power over the rest of society given that the majority consents to be ruled. In many instances, this consent is simply implied.

In order to gain the consent or implied consent of the people, the state uses many strategies that are steeped in lies and deceit. Government’s most important and necessary strategy for retaining control is fear. Fear mongering therefore, is a constant weapon in the arsenal of the state. For if the people were not afraid, they would have little use for government’s continuous assault on their liberty. Fear is a most powerful driver of emotions, and the illusion of safety a most coveted prize of the sheep. Rulers, whether elected or not, fully understand the importance of using fear tactics and the illusion of safety as weapons against the people. The desired effect is to at once purposely intimidate the population at large, while allowing for a state manufactured rescue. The result is an acceptance by the citizenry of less freedom for an imagined safety.